B R U - International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation · 2020. 10. 22. · relevant upcoming events and publications. In particular, we will focus on the people who are using bamboo

INNOVATION STATION

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B R UBamboo and Rattan Update Volume 1 I Issue 1

Sharing the latest news and activities from the bamboo and rattan sector

BOOMING BAMBOO

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BAMBOO, RATTAN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The 'grandfather of bamboo' reflects on 70 years

of sector development

The latest technologieswhich are powering China's

bamboo sector growth

Colombian botanist XimenaLondoño on her career and

bamboo 'paradise'

Bamboo and Rattan Update Vol. 1 Issue 1September 2020

Cover ImageA woman learning to propagatebamboo as part of a training coursein Ghana. Image: INBAR

Editorial TeamAli Mchumo (Guest Editor)Wu JunQiCharlotte King

ContributorsWalter Liese, Fei Benhua, XimenaLondoño

To Submitwww.inbar.int/bru-magazine/[email protected]

About BRUBamboo and Rattan Update (BRU) ispublished quarterly by theInternational Bamboo and RattanOrganisation (INBAR). Content doesnot necessarily reflect the views orpolicies of INBAR. Articles may bereprinted without charge providedINBAR and author are credited.

About INBARINBAR is an intergovernmentalorganisation which promotes the useof bamboo and rattan for sustainabledevelopment.www.inbar.int

INBAR Headquarters: Beijing, China Regional Offices : Yaoundé,Cameroon; Quito, Ecuador; AddisAbaba, Ethiopia; Accra, Ghana; NewDelhi, India

This magazine is published by the International Bamboo and RattanOrganisation, INBAR, and so it is fitting that the theme for the first issueis ‘Bamboo, Rattan and Sustainable Development’. INBAR has beenpromoting bamboo and rattan as solutions for sustainable developmentobjectives since 1997, long before the words ‘SDGs’ or ‘nature-basedsolutions’ were commonplace. It may sound straightforward, but sustainable development is adeceptively simple term. To create a fairer and more sustainable future,we must treat all global challenges as interconnected, and deal withthem together. It would be self-defeating, for example, to tackle povertyalleviation without also combating the root causes of climate change,which threaten to make poverty an endemic problem in many parts ofthe world. What we need, then, are solutions which deliver co-benefitsacross a number of areas. Bamboo and rattan offer some brilliant examples of ‘win-win’solutions. Fast-growing, self-regenerating and versatile, these plantsoffer a critical source of income, energy and construction material forpeople in rural communities, as well as a tool for restoring degradedland, storing carbon and reducing emissions. They can be used to helpsolve some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climatechange, land degradation, deforestation, rural poverty and plasticpollution. Bamboo and Rattan Update was conceived to bring together the mostimportant news, views and activities about these plants. In every issue,we aim to showcase new research findings and projects, as well as

Welcome to the first issue of Bamboo and RattanUpdate: a magazine that aims to bring togetherdiverse voices for nature-based solutions aroundthe world.

Editorial

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relevant upcoming events and publications. In particular, we will focus onthe people who are using bamboo and rattan to help improve the worldaround them. In this special first issue, we highlight two people who havecontributed most to the field of bamboo for sustainable development. Inhis feature, Professor Walter Liese, the ‘grandfather of bamboo’, reflectson the changes in the bamboo sector since his career began in the 1950s(page 4). As Professor Liese shows, our understanding of this plant, andhow we can use it, has changed dramatically in the last few decades,opening up a whole range of new possibilities for sustainabledevelopment. Many of bamboo’s new materials and uses would not bepossible without the pioneering work of researchers, such as ProfessorLiese, who have identified key features about bamboo’s structure andproperties. We also profile Ximena Londoño, a botanist whose work has changedthe way bamboo is understood in South America (page 8). Londoño hasalready won many awards, and claims several bamboo species, to hername, but it is her ‘Bamboo Paradise’ garden which may be her mostenduring legacy, drawing visitors from far away to learn more about thisgolden grass. In this profile, Londoño describes her career, and why she isso passionate about bamboo’s potential in Colombia. Looking to the future, the Director of the International Centre forBamboo and Rattan, Professor Fei Benhua, provides valuable insight intosome of the key developments which are reshaping China’s bamboobusinesses (page 6). From bamboo ‘scissors’ which make it easier toharvest plants, to new durable engineered materials, China’s bamboosector is constantly providing innovative solutions. Professor Fei showshow China’s research and development into bamboo, as the largest, andmost innovative, bamboo economy in the world, has importantimplications for other countries, including many of INBAR’s MemberStates. This magazine is being launched at a unique time in world events. In2020, more than any year, we have the opportunity, and responsibility, toreflect on our relationship with the natural world, and what it gives us. Inparticular, nature-based solutions can be a crucial part of the fight againstclimate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation: all trendswhich have contributed to the spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Bamboo and Rattan Update aims to raise awareness about the importanceof nature-based solutions, including bamboo and rattan, for a moresustainable life in our planet. To this end, I encourage all readers with expertise in the area to get intouch with our editors with suggestions for future articles. You can findout more about the magazine at www.inbar.int/bru-magazine/. We wantto hear your stories, innovative technologies, project work and researchinto bamboo and rattan, and how they might help us build a better,greener world. Thank you for reading.

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BOOMING BAMBOOyears the benefits of bamboo for soil stabilisationwould become better known, and I am happy toreport that this is now the case. Bamboo is now morewidely recognised and utilised as a tool for landrestoration in countries around the world, and arecent INBAR paper covered cases of bamboo beingused for this purpose in China, Colombia, Ghana,India, Nepal, South Africa, Tanzania and Thailand.Based on a 2018 stocktake, INBAR Member Stateshave committed to restore some 5.7 million hectaresof land with bamboo by 2030. It has been assumed that bamboo’s tremendousgrowth results in a corresponding uptake of carbondioxide. In the past, I warned that bamboo’s carbonfixation capability could be overstated: after all, thebiomass growth of bamboo culms results not fromoriginal production, which would increase uptake ofcarbon dioxide, but from the conversion of energyproduced previously, in older culms. While thescience of bamboo growth has not changed, thedevelopment of new durable bamboo materials hasmade it more possible for bamboo to act as a meansof long-term carbon storage. Because of thedurability of these bamboo products, such asfurniture, flooring and other housing materials, andthe rate at which they can be produced, it is nowpossible to state, with confidence, that bamboo canmake an important contribution to carbon storageand climate change mitigation.

Professor Walter Liese reflects on 70years of development in bambooresearch and applications, since hiscareer began in the 1950s.

In 1999, I was pleased to write an article for theAmerican Bamboo Society’s newsletter: ‘Bamboo: Past– Present – Future’. At that time, I had already beenworking in bamboo for some 50 years, and the articleprovided a few of my personal reflections of bambooresearch. More than two decades later, much haschanged. This article offers a brief update on some ofthe most important areas of bamboo research, andtheir applications around the world. My own ‘bamboo story’ began in 1951, when I waspart of a trial to use bamboo as pit props in Germancoal mines. A wood scientist by trade, I wasfascinated by this exotic material, and used one ofthe few electron microscopes available at the time toproduce the first electron micrographs of bambooultrastructure. Since these first micrographs in the 1950s, ourunderstanding of bamboo’s taxonomy, structure, andhow to treat, stabilise and process it, has developedgreatly. As I wrote in ‘Bamboo: Past – Present –Future’, these developments have made possible thecreation of new, versatile bamboo materials, andhave contributed to the better management, andhigher yields, of bamboo plants and plantations. Despite these research advances in bambooproperties and taxonomy, science and applicationstayed apart for a long time. It is only in recentdecades that we have seen stronger attention paid tobamboo, based on an awareness that this plant is amost valuable natural material. INBAR hascontributed in no small way to sharing thisknowledge, publishing numerous manuals onbamboo plantation establishment, management andgenotype selection, and training somewhere in theregion of 40,000 people on all aspects of bamboocultivation and product creation. The impact of such training on the bamboo sector has been veryimportant, not least in the small-scale bamboo craft industry, which employs millions of people in ruralcommunities. In my 1999 newsletter, I predicted that in future

Liese’s monographs of bamboos’ internal structure haveadvanced understanding of these plants’ properties and

possible uses. Credit: Walter Liese.

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In recent decades, advances in our understandingof bamboo biomass energy have paved the way forexciting new applications. In my older article, I notedthat, with its high caloric value and relatively low ashcontent, bamboo has large potential as an energycash crop. This observation has been borne out inrecent years, with advances in the creation ofaffordable and energy-efficient bamboo charcoal andbriquettes. Bamboo bioenergy is now an importantsource of cooking fuel and income for many people inEast Africa, India, Indonesia and elsewhere. Furtherexperimentation with bamboo gasification andpellets could make this plant a useful source ofelectricity generation in future years, including inEurope. As I predicted, bamboo timber is now being usedfor a range of advanced high-quality structuresaround the world. We are seeing more ambitiousconstructions being made, not just with bamboopoles – such as the structure built by Colombianarchitect Simón Vélez for the 2000 World Expo inHannover, Germany, or the ambitious Green Schoolbuilt in Indonesia – but also with engineered bamboocomposites. Perhaps most gratifying is the development ofstrong networks to share and boost bamboo research.I am thankful to have played a role in facilitating thisnew, global bamboo community, both in my role asPresident of the International Union of ForestResearch Organizations (IUFRO), and through mychance encounters with people at conferencesaround the world. In particular, I was pleased to takea leading role in the establishment of the first everinternational working group on ‘Protection andUtilisation of Bamboo and Related Species’, set up by

WALTER LIESEProfessor Walter Liese is a forestry and woodresearcher and wood biologist. He has beennicknamed the ‘grandfather of bamboo’ for hispioneering work on bamboo structure and treatment over a career spanning seven decades.

IUFRO in 1976. My travels as IUFRO President alsobrought me into contact with several critical figuresfor bamboo development: notably Professor JiangZehui, whom I met first in 1985 lecturing on bambooat her University in Hefei, and Dr. Gilles Lessard, theAssociate Director of Forestry of the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre, Canada (IDRC), whomI was sitting next on a long flight from a conferencein Canberra to Hawaii, talking all the time onbamboo, apparently effective for IDRC's programme.Both people were instrumental in the establishment,in 1997, of the world’s first intergovernmentalorganisation dedicated to bamboo and rattan: theInternational Network for Bamboo and Rattan. Morethan 20 years on, INBAR remains a powerful force forcreating and sharing knowledge about these plants,with 47 Member States, and five Regional Offices inaddition to its Headquarters in China. In my article for the American Bamboo Society, Iwrote that “Bamboo has built many bridges acrossthe world”, and I am delighted to see this momentumcontinues more than 20 years on. Although much haschanged since the 1950s, I hope the internationalenthusiasm for bamboo, which I share, will continueundeterred for many years yet to come.

Left: Liese doing laboratory work with scientists from Indonesia and Thailand. Right: In his bamboo garden in Germany.Credit: Walter Liese.



INNOVATION STATIONgovernment’s poverty alleviation and land restorationprogrammes since the 1980s. China’s bamboo sector is constantly innovating. Inthe last five years, the following seven innovations inthe bamboo sector have stood out:

Bamboo for construction and transportOf the many developments in bamboo-basedmaterials in recent years, one of the most importantis the recent creation of lightweight bamboo-bundlelaminated veneer lumber (LVL), which can be used inmodular housing and light-weight transport-relatedmanufacture. Bamboo-based prefabricated LVLhousing is notable for its strength, rigidity and easeof assembly, and has already been piloted inearthquake-stricken areas in China and Nepal. Newbamboo-based materials have the potential tocontribute to greener construction and transport inChina, by serving as a replacement for traditionalmaterials with a larger carbon footprint, such as steeland concrete. This LVL technology won theprestigious Liangxi Science and Technology ProgressAward in 2019.

Making harvesting more efficientIn recent years, new bamboo harvesting machinery,such as ‘scissors’ and cable towing machines, havereplaced the need to manually fell and transportpoles in many of China’s bamboo areas. Powered bybatteries that can work for up to six hours, themachinery has a daily production output equal to

The ‘bamboo kingdom’ has thelargest industry in the world. Here,the International Centre forBamboo and Rattan's DirectorGeneral looks at seven of China's technological advances which arespurring the sector’s growth.

China is famously endowed with abundant bambooresources. The country boasts more than 600 speciesacross 18 provinces; according to China’s latestNational Survey of Forest Resources, nationalbamboo forests cover 6.41 million hectares. With so much bamboo, it is hardly surprising thatChina is the global leader in bamboo processing.Every year, around 150 million tons of bamboo polesare mature for harvesting; China has developedindustries which use bamboo for construction,furniture, paper, packaging, medicine, food, textilesand chemicals. China’s bamboo sector createsemployment for 10 million people, produces anannual output valued at about RMB 300 billion [USD44 billion] and exports USD 2 billion of goods everyyear. In China, bamboo sector development has longbeen linked to sustainable development and povertyalleviation. The country’s bamboo resources arelargely distributed in relatively remote and lessdeveloped regions, and have been part of the

From left to right: A cable towing machine for harvested bamboo poles. Engineered bamboo composite is being used forheavy-duty outdoor installations (Credit: DASSO). Electric bamboo ‘scissors’ make harvesting quicker and more efficient.

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and bamboo and wood composite materials, withapplications in products such as construction,furniture, and bamboo winding pipes.

Under the microscope of cell wall mechanicsThe mechanical properties of a plant’s cell wall areimportant to understanding the plant’s growth andefficient use. However, the cell wall’s microscalemakes its mechanical characterisation difficult. In thepast five years, devices have been developed whichenable zero-span tensile testing on bamboo woodmicro-flakes, micro-tensile testing on single short-length vegetable fibres, and nano-indentation onplant cell walls. These technical developments have helped reveala better understanding of the strength and tenacity ofbamboo’s heterogeneous structure, and are of greatsignificance to creating high-performance vegetablefibre composites, pulping and papermaking, andtextiles.

Reforesting northern ChinaBamboo traditionally thrives in tropical andsubtropical climates: one of the many reasons why ithas been such a prominent feature of reforestationand land restoration campaigns in southern China. Inrecent years, careful selection of bamboo species, aswell as a change in plantation model to larger,professionally managed farms and landscapecompanies, have increased the survival rate ofbamboo stands in northern areas to higher than 85per cent. One of the main purposes of bamboo plantationsin northern China is nature restoration of old miningsites. In Feicheng, a county-level city in Shandongprovince, some 14,700 mu (980 hectares) of bamboohad been planted on subsidence-affected old miningsites by the end of 2019: the largest demonstrationarea of all afforestation projects in northern Chinaduring the country's 13th Five-Year Plan.

that of 12 to 15 workers, thus greatly improvingbamboo harvesting efficiency while bringing down itslabour cost. This is an important development forbamboo harvesting, which is traditionally a time-consuming, labour-intensive process, particularly inrural areas which lack manpower.

Building up bamboo carbon sinks Bamboo not only grows faster than trees; it can alsocapture more carbon, making it an important tool forinternational efforts to combat climate change. Inrecent years, China has been making conscious effortsto cultivate its bamboo forests as a carbon sink. In2012, INBAR, the China Green Carbon Foundation(CGCF) and Zhejiang A & F University created a newmethodology to assist with developing andaccounting for bamboo afforestation carbon projects;now that the accounting methodology has beenapproved, companies in China that want to offsettheir carbon emissions can do so by buying bamboocarbon credits through CGCF.

Promising increase in bamboo pulp and paper Bamboo pulping technologies have become evenmore cost-effective and low-waste, or ‘circular’, inrecent years, and pioneering new heat-pressingtechnologies have spurred the creation of bamboosingle-use items, such as crockery and cups, which donot use glue. These important steps forward enablebamboo to become a more prominent source of pulpand paper products, including household items anddisposable tableware. In China, demand for bamboo pulp is at an all-time high: in 2019, there were 18 large or medium-sized bamboo pulp manufacturers in productionnationwide, with a combined capacity of 2.4 milliontons, which is estimated to rise to 10 million tons by2025. While these figures are small compared to thetotal market for timber-based pulp and paper, theyindicate a promising increase in demand foralternative materials.

More efficient processing for compositesIn the past, the bamboo-based material industry wasrelatively inefficient. Developments in manufacturingtechnology for bamboo fibre composite materialshave helped improve the efficiency of raw materialprocessing, meaning that now 90 per cent of a pole,rather than 50 per cent, can be used. Materials caninclude bamboo strips integrated into wood, flatbamboo and wood composite, bamboo particleboard,

FEI BENHUADr. Fei Benhua is Executive Director General of theInternational Centre for Bamboo and Rattan. He has aPhD from the Chinese Academy of Forestry. Dr. Fei’swork on wood and bamboo science and technologieshas won several national awards, and resulted inhundreds of academic papers and almost 30 patents.



The renowned botanist and bambooresearcher reflects on her work,and the promise of bamboo inColombia.

My parents taught me to love and respect nature froman early age. I spent my childhood on a farm, amidcoffee plantations and guadua forests. Being incontact with the land from a very young age markedme for the rest of my life. I became aware aboutagriculture and developed a great passion for thenative bamboo Guadua angustifolia Kunth, a plant Ihave always admired for its versatility, rapid growthand beauty. My first doll's house was made fromguadua; my first piggy bank; my first swing; a guaduastick was my first horse. It was perhaps a naturalchoice, then, for me to study Agronomy at theNational University of Colombia, where I did my firstresearch work on Guadua, and then at TheSmithsonian Institution in the United States.

Advancing taxonomic research

I have always been an independent researcher;thanks to the support of research grants, from TheSmithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society,Missouri Botanical Garden, as well as otherinstitutions, and relatives and friends, I have beenable to conduct botanical studies in several LatinAmerican countries and visit herbariums in Europeand the United States to further my taxonomicknowledge of American bamboos. Since 1988,together with other colleagues, I have described andnamed one third of the new woody bamboo speciesin Colombia, and almost 50 per cent of the diversityof the genus, plus five new genera in Latin America. Iwas also honoured to have my name given to fourbamboo species by other botanists: Chusquealondoniae, Aulonemia ximenae, Otatea ximenae andMerostachys ximenae. This taxonomic research isimportant to expanding our understanding ofbamboo, and its applications for sustainabledevelopment: the Guadua genus includes some of thelargest and most useful bamboos in America, and

identifying the species helps rural communities andenterprises industrialise and market their products. I am the author and co-author of several scientificpublications. Of these, the book American Bamboos,which was written with Emmet Judziewicz, Lynn Clarkand Margaret Stern, stands out for providing the firstcomprehensive review of neotropical bamboo genera.More recently, I have co-published handbooks thatcontribute to the sustainable development of guaduain Colombia. These guidelines provide practical toolsregarding bamboo diversity, management, uses,harvest and post-harvest processes, that help peopleexploit our country’s diverse bamboos in asustainable way.

Promoting bamboo development in Colombia

Over the years I have worked in many places, but Ihave played a particularly active role in promotingbamboo in my home country Colombia. More thantwo decades ago, with a group of friends who arealso in love with bamboo, we founded the ColombianBamboo Society, a non-profit organisation that playsan important role in the development of the bamboosector in Colombia and Latin America. I also chair Technical Committee 178, ‘Bamboo-Guadua’ of the Colombian Institute of TechnicalStandards and Certification, ICONTEC, which providesthe country with a regulatory framework adapted to

Londoño in her bamboo garden. Credit: Camilo Cuellar.

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IN PROFILE:XIMENA LONDOÑO

the characteristics of Guadua angustifolia, and aims toincrease the country’s product quality,competitiveness, and position in national and foreignmarkets. Some progress has been achieved during thepast 30 years, but there is still a long way to go inrelation to government policies in Colombia.Fortunately, younger generations have much interestin bamboo, and are beginning to develop innovativestart-ups. As a woman of bamboo I have received no smallrecognition, including: the World Bamboo PioneerAward in 2018; a recognition for outstandingachievements in research, granted by the HigherUniversity Council at Universidad Nacional ofColombia in 2017; and the medal of environmentalmerit granted by the Municipality of Montenegro inJuly 2019, for “work done in Colombia and abroadadvocating for the environment, and for being ascholar in the use and conservation of Guadua as anelement of ecological harmony”.

‘Guadua paradise’: opening El Bambusal

In 2001, I inherited from my mother an area of around17 hectares, which I named ‘El Bambusal’, and usedthe land to continue increasing my bamboogermoplasm bank which I had started in 1988. TodayEl Bambusal boasts the largest collection of lowlandtropical bamboos in the northwest of south America, with around 90 species from southeast Asia, thesouth of China and India, and from several LatinAmerican countries. What started as a pet project transformed in 2012

when two journalists writing a feature about theregion’s tourism visited El Bambusal and wereenchanted. My bamboos even made the cover page ofthe magazine. I decided to open El Bambusal to thepublic, as a tourist site and educational experiencewhich would educate and raise awareness about thevirtues of this noble grass. In 2014, El Bambusalopened its doors. Nowadays, a visitor to El Bambusal can appreciatethe 100-year-old guadua houses, a wonderful 350-metre-long bamboo tunnel path, connectivitycorridors that protect 150 plant species and 115 birdspecies, water springs and swamps where bamboosare used for bioremediation, and commercial plantations of Guadua angustifolia and otherbamboos. The team also holds workshops, and offersinformal specialised training in various areas ofbamboo-related knowledge.

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After 40 years of dedication to investigating,promoting, preserving and transforming bamboo, Iam convinced that bamboo can contribute to povertyalleviation in many rural areas; that it is necessary torecognise the diversity existing in each territory; andthat we have to teach people to identify the species,to appropriate the natural wealth they have, and todevelop the skills to transform it. This is how we cancontribute sustainably, through bamboo, towards thesocial and economic progress of farming families, toachieve peace, inclusion and equity in every cornerwhere bamboo grows.

El Bambusal offers "a tourist site and educational experience" about bamboo in Colombia. Credit: Alan Cortesi.



Mark Sultan Gersava, who was featured in Reuters lastyear for his work replacing slash-and-burn agriculturewith a bamboo business which produces straws,cutlery and crockery.Source: Manila Bulletin, 21 August.

Rattan bone replacement hits the market

GreenBone Ortho, a company based in Italy, hasdeveloped a bone replacement material using rattan.According to the company, rattan is the closestmaterial to mimic human bone structure, enabling itto be absorbed and replaced by surrounding bone inthe body. GreenBone’s five-part process alters thechemistry of rattan, while retaining its internalstructure, to create different shapes and sizes. Following rounds of trials, GreenBone’sdevelopment obtained approval from Europeanregulators in December 2019. The company is nowfocusing on scaling up manufacturing to the levelneeded for the market. In an interview with Orthoworld, Lorenzo Pradella,co-founder and CEO of Greenbone, said: “Our researchexplores nature as a source of inspiration for a newbiomaterial that… should not only be biocompatibleand suitable to be integrated into the body, butindeed able to enter a regenerative process,especially for larger bone defects.”Source: Orthoworld, 20 August.

MOSO acquires German manufacturer

Bamboo specialist MOSO International BV hasacquired Bambeau Becker & Großgarten GmbH,located in Frechen, Germany. For the time being, thebrands and sales structures of both companies remainunchanged. MOSO International BV is Europe’s largest supplierof bamboo products for indoor and outdoorapplications in the construction industry and of tailor-made products for the logistics, furniture andautomotive industries. According to The Merchant Magazine, consolidationwill enable MOSO International BV and Bambeau tohave a stronger presence in markets where bamboo isone of the possible materials. In addition, the

Award-winning bamboo car design

A group of engineering students from India won theCircular Economy Award at the 2020 Shell Eco-marathon, for their design of a bamboo car (pictured).The body is made of bamboo composite, with thechassis constructed using Dendrocalamus stocksiibamboo poles.Source and image: India Today, 10 July.

Bamboo plantations now mandatory onPhilippines mining sites

All mining sites in the Philippines, one of the mosthighly mineralised countries in the world, are nowmandated to have a bamboo plantation each.According to a memorandum issued by the Mines andGeosciences Bureau, mining companies are nowobliged to establish and maintain bambooplantations equivalent to 20 per cent of the mined-out area. In recent years, the Philippines has emphasisedthe importance of bamboo for income generation.Earlier this year, Agriculture Secretary William Darlabelled bamboo a "high-value crop". A few monthsbefore this, the government had approved a billseeking to grant incentives to bamboo investors,including five years' free rent of government lands fornewly established commercial bamboo plantations,and exemption from specific forest charges and taxes.Successful bamboo agri-entrepreneurs include

B A M B O O A N D R A T T A N A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

Collating the latest international news and activities aboutbamboo and rattan sector development.

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consolidation of the companies’ research anddevelopment departments should enable them to“significantly increase their innovation power in themarket.” Both companies have their owndevelopment and production teams with facilitieslocally and in China, that carry out research forproduct development.Source: The Merchant Magazine, 1 June.

Dedicated bamboo research group established

A research group dedicated to multidisciplinaryresearch into bamboo has been launched, as part ofthe Faculty of Forestry at the University of BritishColumbia (UBC), in Canada. The group, which is thefirst of its kind to be established in North America,was established by UBC in collaboration with theInternational Centre for Bamboo and Rattan andZhejiang A&F University in China. Bamboo is already a widely used non-timber forestproduct, particularly in developing countries, butmore research is still needed to understand itsproperties and expand its applications. The researchgroup aims to collaborate with industrial andacademic partners across the world, to provide high-quality research into the structural properties,industrial applications and innovative uses of bambooas well as its social, environmental and culturalpotential. Preliminary areas of research includeround-pole bamboo construction, laminated bamboocomposites, and sustainable bamboo management.Source: Asia Forest Research Centre, UBC.

New bamboo clusters established in India

Nine states in India are establishing 22 bamboo‘clusters’. The clusters are intended as part of thegovernment-led National Bamboo Mission, whichaims to connect bamboo farmers with markets and soencourage the development of the sector. Theclusters will work on raising nurseries andplantations, and developing bamboo productsincluding furniture, agarbatti, blinds, chopsticks,toothbrushes, lifestyle products, jewellery, bottles,yoga mats and charcoal. In recent years, India has been taking steps toencourage bamboo use. In 2017, bamboo wasremoved from the category of ‘tree’ in the Indian

Forest Act 1927, making it possible for anyone tocultivate and use it without felling and transitpermits. The National Bamboo Mission has identifiedten commercially important bamboo species, and ishelping to make quality plants available for farmersand plantation owners. A recent BusinessWorld op-ed called for India tomake better use of its bamboo resources, andrecommended the government to "extract the latestcommercialisation technologies from theInternational Bamboo and Rattan Organisation(INBAR)”. In 2020, India reported it has 17.4 million hectaresof bamboo-bearing area, compared to 7 millionhectares in 1990. Source: Times of India, 9 September.

Kenya classifies bamboo as ‘crop'

On 10 September, a cabinet meeting chaired byKenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, confirmed thatbamboo will now be designated as a ‘crop’. Thedecision was taken “in order to foster thecommercialisation of bamboo plants, and as part ofthe Administration’s Greening Campaign”, accordingto a press release by the Cabinet Office. The decisionto promote bamboo is part of the Kenya’s GreeningCampaign, which aims to increase tree cover andgenerate more employment through agroforestry. According to a 2018 resource assessmentconducted by INBAR, Kenya has 133,000 hectares ofbamboo and significant potential to expand itsbamboo sector through the creation of bambooconstruction materials, furniture, handicrafts,bioenergy products, stick-based products and textiles.Source: Cabinet Office, Executive Office of the President




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Diversification of Bamboo Products’, where expertslooked at the latest industrial materials andengineered bamboo products. Speakers from China-based companies Dasso and Shilin expressedoptimism about the growth of the sector, andhighlighted the need for policy and financial support,and a more standardised supply of bamboo. The webinar series will continue from September,with sessions which focus on the industrialdevelopment of bamboo products, particularlycharcoal and biomass pellets, machinerydevelopment, and pulp and paper making, as well asbamboo for healthcare. INBAR is also planning to create a separatewebinar series dedicated to bamboo construction,which is likely to run through November andDecember. INBAR’s webinar series is run mostly in English,although the Regional Office for Latin America andthe Caribbean has also been organising weeklySpanish-language webinars on a wide range of topics,with regional experts. A full list of upcoming webinars is available on theINBAR website: www.inbar.int/inbar-webinars/.Videos from previous webinars can be viewed onlineon INBAR’s Youtube channel, @INBAROfficial.

New webinar series on bamboo and rattan

INBAR has launched a new webinar series, covering awide range of topics related to bamboo and rattanmanagement. Designed as a digital replacement forINBAR’s usual programme of work during the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic, the series has attracted aninternational audience. So far, INBAR has produced 31 webinars, under anumber of themes: bamboo’s importance forlivelihoods and poverty reduction, the developmentof the bamboo industry, and the plant’s usefulness forenvironmental management. The webinars have been popular, with around2000 online attendees. A recording of each webinarhas been uploaded to INBAR’s Youtube account,where they have subsequently been viewed morethan 18,000 times in total. One particularly well-viewed webinar was‘Bamboo for Climate Change and Carbon MarketOpportunities’, which discussed bamboo’s potentialas a carbon sink, if planted on degraded lands andmanaged well. The webinar involved a discussion ofthe methodologies and verified carbon standards forbamboo carbon trade, which are well developed, andthe growing industry for durable bamboo products. Also popular was ‘Innovation, Application and


An INBAR-led workshop on selective bamboo harvesting, which took place in Ghana in August.


INBAR commissions research, conducts project work and raisesawareness about bamboo and rattan's potential across its 47Member States.

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Training in Africa

INBAR project staff have been organising trainingworkshops across African Member States. COVID-19 has made the need for bamboo sectordevelopment more pressing than ever before. As afast-growing rural resource, which can be processedinto handicrafts and furniture easily in the home,bamboo can provide a resilient form of income, aswell as a source of fuel, fodder and food. In East Africa, INBAR staff have conducted trainingworkshops on health and sanitation, as well asbamboo furniture and construction, for ruralcommunities. The trainees, from Ethiopia, Kenya andUganda, reported an increase in the skills needed tomake value-added bamboo products, as well as asense of confidence and control over their livelihoodsmore generally. The workshops form part of theINBAR-led Dutch-Sino-East Africa BambooDevelopment Programme, the second phase of whichbegan in 2020. Meanwhile, in Central and West Africa, traininghas continued on sustainable bamboo harvesting andmanagement. (See picture, page 12.) Poormanagement can reduce stocks and impact thequality of poles; as such, a large focus of the Inter-Africa Bamboo Smallholder Development Programme,led by INBAR, is to promote better managementacross Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana and Madagascar. In light of COVID-19, all workshops have beencareful to adhere to strict safety standards.

How to establish rattan plantations

A new technical report provides guidelines on how toestablish and maintain a sustainable rattanplantation. The report, which was written by membersof INBAR’s Rattan Task Force as part of the CGIARResearch Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry(FTA), looks at how to choose and propagate species,as well as how to manage, and conduct a cost-benefitanalysis of, plantations. Currently, rattan cultivation is only practiced to alimited extent in countries like Indonesia, Malaysiaand the Philippines. In the foreword, the reportauthors E.M. Muralidharan and Rene Kaam say:“Rattans contribute substantially to the livelihood and economic status of local communities in manycountries, [so] it is important to establish rattanplantations which ensure sustainable availability and

sufficient economic returns.” The report can be found online in INBAR’sResource Centre, under ‘Technical Reports’.

INBAR Member States celebrate World Bamboo Day

For the last 11 years, 18 September has beencelebrated as World Bamboo Day. In 2020, INBAR co-organised and attended a number of events to discussthis grass plant's unique importance for variousaspects of sustainable development. In Peru, INBAR's Latin America and the CaribbeanRegional Office hosted a bamboo planting event(pictured), to raise awareness about the plant's role inland rehabilitation. The Office also hosted a virtualevent about bamboo's history and potential acrossthe Americas, and compiled a video message of 64people from 18 countries. In Kenya, Environment Cabinet Secretary KeriakoTobiko attended a bamboo planting event co-organised by INBAR and the Bamboo Association ofKenya. In Madagascar, INBAR project staff organiseda bamboo workshop visit for young apprentices, aswell as a webinar about bamboo processing andplantations. In Ghana, the West Africa Regional Officepresented a community with 500 bamboo plantletsand 1000 seedlings, to plant along nearby rivers andestablish a bamboo nursery. Finally, In India, the South Asia Regional Office co-organised a virtual Bamboo Cultural Festival, tocelebrate the importance of the craft across thecountry.


A bamboo planting event was held in Peru to celebrateWorld Bamboo Day 2020.


bulk of the product innovations described. The physical properties of bamboo and itsengineered composites are relatively ill understood,especially compared to their wood-basedcounterparts. Several chapters investigate thestructural properties of bamboo-based materials. In a chapter on ‘fire-safe bamboo structures’,researchers from the University of Queenslanddiscuss the need for a comprehensive understandingof the thermal and mechanical properties of bamboo,as a prerequisite for building high-rise buildings. Thispossibility might seem far-fetched, but research suchas this could pave the way for complex structures tobe built out of bamboo in the near future.

Alongside research into the structural propertiesof bamboo, the book also contains case studies ofexisting bamboo building products. Case studies oftraditional structures, such as Ethiopian vernacularbamboo architecture, provide a welcome reminder ofthe adaptability, flexibility and value of indigenousmethods when looking towards the future ofconstruction. Out of more than 200 presentations given at ICBS2018, 24 papers were chosen for publication throughthe peer review process and grouped into fivesections. The wide range of topics covered meansthat people from different fields will find somethingthat interests them, from architects, designers andmaterials scientists to development professionals. Transforming this unique plant into a modernconstruction option used by architects and engineersacross the world will require a deep understanding ofits properties and potential. Modern EngineeredBamboo Structures provides a valuable platform forreaders to explore this potential in detail, and aspringboard for further inspiration, research andinnovation in this growing field.

Modern Engineered BambooStructures (2019)

Modern Engineered Bamboo Structures: Proceedings ofthe Third International Conference on Modern BambooStructures (ICBS 2018), June 25-27, 2018, Beijing, Chinapresents a useful and comprehensive overview of thecurrent state of the bamboo construction industry,bringing together recent research, industrysummaries and case studies on the subject. Allcontent is based on presentations given at the ThirdInternational Conference on Modern BambooStructures, which was held in Beijing in 2018. Fast-growing, endlessly renewable, and strong,bamboo has obvious appeal as an environmentallyfriendly building material. Bamboo culms have beenused for centuries in the construction of homes andbuildings in bamboo-producing areas across Asia,Africa and Latin America: one chapter, on round-polebamboo buildings, even referenced bambooconstruction in Southeast Asia that began one millionyears ago. But according to the authors of ‘Recent Progressin Engineered Bamboo Development’, which gives auseful summary of the types of products that can bemade from engineered bamboo, it is only in the latter half of the last century that engineers have begun to work on maximising the efficiency of the material forconstruction. Round-pole bamboo structures usingnatural bamboo make up only a small part of thetypes of structures outlined in this chapter: compositematerials made by a manufacturing process usingadhesive lamination, such as bamboo scrimber, ply-bamboo and cross-laminated bamboo, comprise the

IN REVIEW

Transforming this unique plant into a modernconstruction option... will require a deep

understanding of its properties and potential.

Xiao, Y., Li., Z. and Liu, K.W. (2019) (eds.) ModernEngineered Bamboo Structures: Proceedings of the ThirdInternational Conference on Modern Bamboo Structures(ICBS 2018), June 25-27, 2018, Beijing, China. Taylorand Francis: Oxford

14 INBAR Magazine

. . .The estimated spread of bamboo forest, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization ofthe UN’s (FAO) most recent Forest Resources Assessment (FRA). This is an increase on the 2010FRA, which reported 31.5 million hectares of bamboo. In total, the FAO reports a 50 per centincrease in bamboo area between 1990 and 2020, largely because of increases in China and India. There is reason to believe that the bamboo area presented in FRA 2020 is an underestimate. Ofthe 132 countries that reported on bamboo for FRA 2020, only 23, or 17 per cent, indicated thatthey had bamboo resources. Importantly, in 2020 fewer countries reported on bamboo coveragethan in 2010, when 33 countries provided statistics. As such, the 2020 total excludes a number ofcountries which had previously reported on bamboo, including some 15 million hectares ofbamboo from countries in Asia and Latin America, which had been included in FRA 2010. As in2010, the FRA 2020 does not include any reporting from a number of countries which likelycontain abundant bamboo resources. In addition, a number of countries’ bamboo area statistics can be revised upwards, based onnewer or more accurate data provided through recent remote-sensing resource assessments, or byusing different reporting parameters. INBAR is working with a number of its Member States to provide resource assessments of eachcountry's bamboo coverage, as a first step to developing the sector.

I N N U M B E R S

35 MILLION HECTARES

INBAR events22 September onwardsINBAR WebinarsVirtual events

18 NovemberLatin America and the CaribbeanAmbassadors' DialogueBeijing, China

November24th Meeting of the INBAR Boardof Trustees Beijing, China

Other relevant events(Ongoing)CGIAR Research Program onForests, Trees and Agroforestry(FTA) webinar seriesVirtual

5-9 October25th Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry, and WorldForestry WeekVirtual events

28-29 OctoberGLF Biodiversity Digital ConferenceVirtual event

22-27 OctoberMeishan Bamboo Trade FairSichuan, China

6 NovemberYong'an Bamboo Trade FairFujian, China

19-20 NovemberRegional Initiative on RenewableEnergy for Hindu Kush Himalayas Consultative WorkshopKathmandu, Nepal

6 DecemberKerala Bamboo FestivalKerala, India

EVENTS AND MEETINGS


IN NUMBERS


Find out more about relevant upcoming events at www.inbar.int/events

INBAR is working with the Government of Thailand and local partners in Nan Province to co-organise the Asia-Pacific Bamboo Symposium & Expo (APBAMBOO 2021) in late June next year.APBAMBOO 2021 aims to provide a platform for leading experts to share knowledge, ideas andtechnologies related to bamboo’s use in the Asia-Pacific region, and to develop substantivecooperation in this region and beyond. Join us to find out more about bamboo’s potential for green growth, climate change mitigationand environmental protection. For more information, please visit: www.apbamboo2021.com

NEXT YEAR: ASIA-PACIFIC BAMBOO SYMPOSIUMNan Province, ThailandJune 2021

According to the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the UN’s (FAO) latest ForestResource Assessment, there are 4.6 millionhectares of bamboo in Africa. However,stocks are often widely dispersed and notmanaged. A well-managed supply is criticalto ensure the stable development of thebamboo sector, and the continuing healthand productivity of a bamboo stand. In thispicture, participants on a training workshopin Cameroon in May 2020 learn aboutdifferent methods of bamboo propagation.The bamboo nursery was established in 2019,as part of an ongoing INBAR-led project topromote bamboo for livelihoods developmentacross Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana andMadagascar.

A P I C T U R E I N 1 0 0 W O R D S

CHINA | CAMEROON | ECUADOR | ETHIOPIA | GHANA | INDIAwww.inbar.int | @INBAROfficial

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Documents

B R U - International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation · 2020. 10. 22. · relevant upcoming events and publications. In particular, we will focus on the people who are using bamboo